Killing of man with table leg 'unlawful'

A man who was shot by police while carrying a table leg which was mistaken for a gun, was unlawfully killed, an inquest jury ruled today.

Harry Stanley, 46, a painter and decorator of Hackney, east London, was shot in the head and hand by police marksmen on September 22 1999. Two Metropolitan police officers fired the shots after mistakenly being informed that Mr Stanley had a sawn-off shotgun.

The father-of-three, who was originally from Lanarkshire, Scotland, was carrying a blue plastic bag with a coffee table leg inside, which had just been repaired by his brother Peter. He was shot as he walked home from the Alexandra Pub in Hackney.

Today a jury of six women and four men at St Pancras coroner's court took around seven hours to reach their majority verdict at the end of a two week inquest.

The inquest was the second to take place into Mr Stanley's death. The open verdict recorded at the end of the original inquest was later quashed by the high court.

The dead man's family and friends have campaigned for a new inquest and today there were shouts of "yes" from the public gallery as the verdict was read out.

The officers who shot Mr Stanley told the inquest earlier that they thought he was raising a gun and was about to shoot when they confronted him. One, PC Kevin Fagan, described how he saw Mr Stanley walking with a cylindrical object in his hand. He said: "It was tightly wrapped in a bag, about 18in long and the majority of it was pointing downwards ... the realisation struck me that I was about to be shot at 15ft with a sawn-off shotgun."

The officer said he shouted for the man to "drop it" by which time he was looking straight at the officer in a "boxer's stance". PC Fagan said Mr Stanley then moved his left hand to grip the object so he carried it with both hands. The officer said he fired just before his colleague Inspector Neil Sharman, hitting him in the hand.

Mr Sharman told the inquest he fired one round when he thought PC Fagan was about to be shot. "Fearing for Kevin Fagan's life, and believing that the contents of that bag was a sawn-off shotgun, and with the actions of the person holding it, I felt he was about to be shot. In response I fired one round," Mr Sharman said.

He told the court he aimed at Mr Stanley's "central body mass" but missed and shot him in the head. The Stanley family's barrister described Mr Sharman's version of events as "concocted".

After the verdict was delivered, the Independent Police Complaints Commission said it had recommended that the coroner invite the Home Office and the Association of Chief Police Officers to commission research in order to try to prevent similar deaths. Coroner Dr Andrew Reid backed the recommendation.

The IPCC commissioner, Deborah Glass, said: "There is a need for further research into whether there are more effective methods for firearms officers in dealing with vulnerable people, such as those impaired by alcohol, as Mr Stanley was.

"Such people are often less likely to react rationally and more likely to react negatively to certain sorts of approaches and challenges." The inquest heard evidence that since Mr Stanley's death, the Met had substantially improved training for control room staff, as well as for firearms officers and tactical advisors. The inquest also heard that "less lethal" options such as tasers, or electrified darts, were now more readily available to Met officers.

Deborah Coles, co-director of deaths in custody campaign group Inquest, which has been working with the Stanley family, said: "This inquest is a vindication of the family's fight for the truth and the only just outcome of this shocking case ... We now expect them to be prosecuted for manslaughter. We have always believed that these officers should face criminal charges."

Mr Stanley's widow Irene, 51, said outside the court that she was pleased with the verdict but now she thought that the officers should be suspended.

She said: "Harry was an unarmed man. It is bad enough the family was devastated when Harry died. We should not have to fight for justice. My grieving has been fighting for justice. I have not had time to grieve."

The Crown Prosecution Service looked at the case in 2001 and concluded there was insufficient evidence to bring criminal charges against the police officers involved in the death. However a CPS spokeswoman confirmed today that it would review the case.

The Metropolitan police said it was "re-considering" suspending the two officers until the outcome of a review by the IPCC.

A force spokesman said: "The Met wishes to again offer its sympathy to the family of Mr Stanley and express our regret for his death ... the death resulted from the most tragic set of circumstances ... it must be remembered that the officers were called upon to make a split-second decision while confronting what they believed to be an imminent threat to their lives. They did not have the benefit of hindsight.

"Along with their colleagues working in police armed response units, they are required to regularly face the most challenging of policing situations in order to make the streets of London safer for us all."